1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for processing images by applying a digital processing technique thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, there is known a color copier wherein an original image is subjected to color separation into three colors using a color separation filter. The original is scanned for each color separation, a latent image is formed on a photosensitive body by a color-separated luminous image to be developed with a complimentary color developer, and a multi-color superposition is carried out to reproduce a color image.
As for these kinds of color copies, since color balance is necessary for the reproduction of color images, half-tone representation and the like have been implemented by utilizing analog characteristics of electrostatic photography, adjustment for the image exposure amount and electric charging conditions for the photosensitive body and so on are more complicated. Also, the variation in image quality is largely due to changes in the environment, as corona charging, photosensitive elements and the like would often suffer directly from the effects of temperature and humidity.
Further, since the process, from reading-out of the original image to formation of a latent image, has been put into practice through all two-dimensional optical systems, it was impossible to process the image at the separate points thereof.